LOS ANGELES, California?As we reported earlier, ?Milk,? Gus Van Sant?s biopic of the first openly gay man to be voted into public office in America, is an effective introduction to the life and times of Harvey Milk, especially those who are not familiar with him. Before he was assassinated by a colleague in the San Francisco Board of Supervisors in 1978, Harvey fought for gay and human rights, forging coalitions across a wide political spectrum, from senior citizens to union workers.

Harvey?s love life is certainly not what ?Milk? is all about. But since Harvey and his two lovers, first Scott Smith and then Jack Lira are played by straight actors?Sean Penn, James Franco and Diego Luna, respectively?reporters asked James and Diego about their respective kissing scenes with Sean, who was not present at the press cons held recently at The Ritz-Carlton Hotel in San Francisco.

Two lovers

Scott was Harvey?s lover when the latter?s political and activist career started taking off from the camera shop they owned on Castro Street, the main thoroughfare in San Francisco?s gay neighborhood. Jack came into Harvey?s life after Scott split.

While James and Diego were disarmingly candid in their answers, the former agreed with a reporter?s observation about the media obsession over these screen kisses while nary a question would be asked if the actors engaged in violent scenes instead. ?Yeah, that?s true,? James answered. ?It?s the number one question I?m asked?what was it like to kiss Sean Penn? I don?t know. It?s fun. I mean, we?re two straight guys kissing so it?s a little unusual. I don?t think either one of us has done it before so it?s a little unusual. But you?re right that, at least in American films, people get weird about sex in the movies.?

Diego Luna, the Mexican actor who is enjoying an acclaimed international career with such films as Alfonso Cuaron?s ?Y Tu Mama Tambien,? Steven Spielberg?s ?The Terminal,? and various award-winning entries at film festivals, was alternately shy, sheepish, amusing and flustered but always winning in his discussion of his intimate scenes with Sean. He had the reporters constantly laughing with his humor-tinged responses.

?He is not here, right?? Diego joked, pretending to scan the room to confirm that Sean was not around.

He said, ?(Sean is) a good kisser. No. I mean, he?s okay. I am not going to say that he is not a good kisser but I?ve tried better. With Sean, something happens. The people who are really great in what they do have magic. When they perform, they don?t need to pretend. Sean is a guy who works more than any other actor I?ve worked with, who takes his job with a lot of commitment and enjoyment. He?s a very sweet guy. He understands acting as a sharing process. I really appreciated that when I was on the set with him.?

Tequila between takes

?The love scenes?? Diego repeated aloud the key words in a reporter?s question. ?I try to forget them. Gus shoots in such a way that it?s very relaxing as an actor. No one else is there. There?s just a camera and the camera was really far away from us so it feels like a safe place. Whatever happens there is just between you and the other actor. Then it?s all the millions of people who are going to see the film. But when you?re doing it, you?re not thinking about that. It went well. It was quite easy, in fact. But I did need tequila in between takes.?

Playfully covering his face with both his hands, Diego added, ?I need help. You got me.? Then the actor, who also kissed his friend, Gael Garcia Bernal in ?Y Tu?,? continued, ?It was not the toughest thing to do in the film. It?s like the same thing happened in ?Y Tu Mama Tambien.? It?s like it?s tough to jump into the water but once you are there, it?s fine. It?s easy. It?s worse if you do it with someone you like because you don?t want the scene to end. You start to get too close and it starts to feel real. Sean is a great actor. I am kind of an okay actor so we can pretend it?s okay.?

Using his hands to demonstrate a gesture of shooing someone away, Diego quipped, ?But at the very end, it was like, ?Get away. Put something on.? ?

?We were not completely naked,? he revealed. ?We had something covering our things. Our beautiful things were covered by these fake ones. So if you get to see something in the film, it?s not ours. It was designed and completely shaped. We had a chance to choose, in fact. The makeup artists came up with three and said, ?Which one do you like?? I was like, ?Um, not the biggest one.? Because I thought that would be too much, too pretentious. I chose one that has the hair perfectly cut. We used those things and I have to say they helped in a weird way because it feels like you?re covered. It feels like okay, this is easy. It?s not me. What you?re seeing is not mine so it?s fine.

Completely naked

?I remember walking completely naked, with no problem among the grips and everyone. I felt like, you guys, this is okay. I felt in a way that I was dressed. It worked but the other thing is that the scene played like for a minute. Gus said, ?Okay, go do it, play and we?ll see what happens.? It was not one of these scenes where we needed to hit positions and marks and that we spend the whole day doing. We wore these for an hour and it was easy.?

James Franco, for his part, said of his love scenes with Sean: ?We didn?t prepare for those scenes. I usually don?t have any preparations for romantic, love or kissing scenes, whether it?s with a man or a woman. There was one point during the rehearsal process for the movie when the idea was suggested that Sean and I would go and stay together in the place where we would film the apartment scenes. I?ve known Sean for about five years but I guess the idea was that staying together would make us feel like we were a real couple. But because of scheduling issues, it didn?t happen.?

The actor, known worldwide as Harry Osborn in the ?Spider-Man? blockbuster series and one of the finest young actors, explained, ?Sean is one of the best actors. Any young actor who knows anything about acting looks up to Sean. I certainly do. It wasn?t very hard to transfer those feelings of admiration into?I guess?romantic feelings when you?re filming.? He dished how he and Sean pretended to engage in macho sports banter after filming their intimate scenes: ?We joked around a little bit like we would say, ?Oh, how about those Raiders?? That kind of stuff.?

Funny story

?As far as making it look real, there was kind of a funny story,? James offered. He narrated that Gus saw a video by artist Douglas Gordon of a man and a woman kissing that was part of an exhibit at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art. Gus, according to James, was impressed by the passionate kissing of the couple who, it turned out, were complete strangers hired to kiss for 12 hours. Douglas ended up using only three minutes of the kiss for his video installation.

With his eyes smiling, James recounted, ?Gus told me the story and he said, ?I?m going to have you and Sean kiss for a while.? We didn?t kiss for 12 hours but Gus added this shot that I think is really amazing and actually helps the movie. It wasn?t in the original script?we?re sitting out in front of the camera shop on Castro Street and kissing. I think Gus used the whole thing. We filmed the kiss for like a minute. It doesn?t sound like a long time but it is. It?s pretty long to kiss somebody. It was out on Castro Street.?

James laughed as he continued recalling the shoot, which was witnessed by many, including noted San Francisco author and gay activist Armistead Maupin, and Cleve Jones, one of Harvey?s real-life friends who helped in the making of ?Milk?: ?Just off-camera, there were like 300 people watching. I was a little nervous to do that. You can?t imagine anything else. It?s like, this is happening and you?re doing it. I know how to kiss and I just did my best. After the scene, Cleve Jones and everyone came up and he was like, ?Oh, that was great, man.? Then he introduced me to Armistead Maupin. Everybody in San Francisco had come out to watch the first big kiss (in the movie).?

E-mail the columnist at rvnepales_5585@yahoo.com and read his blog, ?The Nepales Report,? on http://blogs.inquirer.net/nepalesreport.